Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure) (11 page)

He ran past the houses and small businesses that he walked past every day on his way to and from work, they looked different somehow,
unwelcoming and unfamiliar. He turned the corner and his home came into view, number 48 Terrace Drive. The beautifully maintained front garden looked stunning against the pink and orange evening sky. The many hours Hellen had put into the flowers and Miles’ Sunday lawn mowing routine had made for a splendid and welcoming sight for any visitor to the home of the Stantons. The neighbour’s children played merrily after school, some rode their bicycles, others played hover ball. Miles ran on sucking up every last drop of the life he was about to say goodbye to forever, he felt like crying but held back the tears and pushed on, ‘how did it come to this? What did I ever do to deserve to have to say goodbye to all of this?!’

Finally Miles reached the front door.
Utterly exhausted, he used the last of his strength to knock loudly on the steel white door of his home. After several seconds, the door slid open. Hellen stood in the doorway, a look of absolute shock on her face as she witnessed her dishevelled soon-to-be-ex-husband.

“Miles!?”
she shouted, “you’re not supposed to be here...how did you even…”

“Hellen...
my God, it's so good to see your face again,” Miles said, stepping through the doorway, a strained smile spreading across his face.

“You have to leave,
right now Miles!” Hellen said as she slowly backed away from Miles.

“Where's Chet?” Miles asked
.

“You can't do this, Miles. You need to-”

“WHERE IS MY SON, HELLEN!?” barked Miles angrily.

“If you don't get out of he
re right now, I'm alerting the Enforcers!” Miles paused and looked into Hellen's eyes before replying, in a soft, weak voice.

“They're already after me, Hellen. And when they find me, they're going to put me on a shuttle to Gyaros. This is the last chance I'll ever get to see my family
, don’t you understand?” Tears began to form in Hellen's eyes as she continued to back away.

Miles walked slowly into the house when something caught his eye, to his right, lying on a bed surrounded by medical equipment was none other tha
n Tyler Riggs.

“How…how could you He
llen? After all we’ve been through, you bring this man into our house, into you! I-I can’t feel anything anymore Hellen, I’m broken, you took everything from me Hellen. I just…I’m sorry. I should have been there for you. I just know that in time you’ll see, I’ll make it all up to you and…”

“Dad?” Miles looked up at the top of the stairs to see Chet standing there, confused.

“Stay in your room, sweetie!” Hellen called, her voice trembling, tears flowing down her soft, glowing cheeks.

“Dad!” Chet ran down the stairs excitedly with
a large smile across his face.

“Come here
my son!” said Miles, crouching down on one knee and opening his arms to hug Chet.

“I missed you, Dad!”
said Chet as he embraced his father. The sound of engines and Enforcer sirens could be heard as they began to close in on Miles’ position.

“Listen to me, Chet,” Miles
voice cracked as he fought back tears, “your father's going to be gone for a long time.”

“Wh
y? Where are you going?” asked Chet, his smile now replaced with knitted brow, his face displaying an expression of worry.

“You'll understand one day, son. But I need you to know that I
’ll always love you.”

“Dad?! What
, where are you going?!” Chet repeated, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Just be good to your mother, grow up strong and smart, you’ll see your
Daddy again someday. I promise.” He took Chet’s face in both hands and kissed him repeatedly on the top of his head as he heard the patrollers coming to a halt on their drive way, followed by the sounds of car doors opening and closing.

“*Beep*
. There he is! *Beep*,” Miles heard a voice speak from behind him in the same emotionless tone that he had become quite familiar with over the past week. Miles didn't take his eyes off Chet, there was no reason to, he knew what was coming.

“*Beep*
. Take him down, *Beep*.”

“*Beep*
. Yes sir! *Beep*.”

And w
ith that, Miles felt a sharp pain shoot through his entire body as everything, once again, went dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapte
r 8

For the third time in the past five days Miles awoke in severe pain, his vision was blurred and his back ached from the impact of The Enforcer’s electrified baton. Looking around, Miles noticed that he was sitting inside some kind of red coloured container that stretched, he estimated, about ten metres in length and was approximately three meters high. The cabin was lit by a number of yellow lights that were dotted along the ceiling and he counted ten seats on either side of the small shuttle. And then he noticed it, the unmistakable logo of The Talos Corporation. ‘Oh no…’ he thought as his blood went icy cold in his veins. Miles, who had suddenly realised where he was and what was going on went to stand but found that he couldn’t due to the heavy restraints which held him in place. He put his hands on the thick rubber cylinders that were preventing him from moving and attempted to shake them free, but alas they would not budge.

“They only come off when we land
,” spoke a voice to Miles’ left. He turned to see a bald, fit looking, dark skinned man. He had a calm deep voice and did not make eye contact with Miles, his soft gaze fixed on the empty chair opposite his.

“Wh-when we land where?” Miles asked sheepishly followed by a gulp.

“Heh, you kiddin?” the black man chuckled. As he turned to face Miles he revealed a long vertical scar down the left side of his face, his left eye was completely white and presumably quite blind. His face turned serious when he saw the fear in Miles eyes.

“When
we land on Gyaros, that’s where we’re headed, and the next time you set foot on solid ground is gonna be in nine hours and that ground’s gonna be red, the colour of blood, brother”

Miles’ hear
t sank like a stone. Of all that he’d experienced over the past five days this was by far the most devastating blow, the lowest he had fallen, the lowest any citizen of Carthage could ever fall! This was not supposed to happen, he was supposed to be working off his probation in the Yellow Districts and then making things right with Hellen. Now Miles was looking at what was, in the words of his old friend Candice, ‘as good as a death sentence’. Miles knew that he wouldn’t last a day on the red moon, that he’d never again see the smiling face of his wife and son. And so he sat there, slumped in his seat, resigned to his fate. He buried his chin in his chest and stared at the ground, deflated. ‘Ryker, that son a bitch, he turned on me, screwed me over.’ Miles clenched his fists, his eyes now full of rage. ‘The dreamscape wore off too quickly, that’s probably why he was getting the shit kicked out of him yesterday; weak product. I never should have trusted him, the plan was doomed to fail from the start. Why couldn’t I just do my damn six months and get back to my family,’ his fists loosened and his gaze softened. ‘I can’t blame the guy though, for protecting himself, after all I’d switch places with him in an instant if I could. It’s totally understandable, he just didn’t want to get shipped back.’ As Miles spoke the words ‘shipped back’ to himself, his heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened as he suddenly remembered something.

“Get to New Fortune and find someone called Mesa, show them this, they might be able to help you out. I know it's a stretch, but it'll be your best chance.”
Ryker’s words from last night echoed through Miles’ head. Frantically he used his right hand to squeeze past the restraints and into his top pocket, by some miracle it was still there and hadn’t been lost in the chase. ‘Thank God,’ said Miles to himself letting out a sigh of relief and grasping the small cubic charm tightly in his closed fist. ‘There’s still a chance. I don’t know how much I can trust the word of that little prick, but at this stage I don’t have a choice. I have to believe that there’s a way to get off Gyaros, that there’s a way back home. I just have to believe, otherwise I don’t stand a chance at survival’. Miles probably didn’t stand a chance anyway but that didn’t stop him clutching the little metal box with a newfound sense of purpose and resolve, and an admirable naivety.

It was at this point that Miles noticed the other passengers on
The Talos Craft. There were two others, making for a total of four. Both of the other two were seated on the opposite side of the shuttle and were a number of seats down and to the left of where Miles and the black man were sitting. One of the men was tall and very thin, his skin was an unhealthy shade of yellow and his eyes were bloodshot, with big dark bags hanging below. This man’s hair was patchy and thin, he did not look well at all as he drifted in and out of sleep. A little further down sat a very short man, with a horribly disfigured face. Miles almost gagged at the sight, having never been exposed to the mutated image of a Red District’s inhabitant.

“Hey psst
,” Miles whispered and the man beside him turned to listen, “I need to get to New Fortune, what do you know about it? How would one…um…proceed to...er…make their way to such a destination?” Miles had no idea why he was talking like this though it might have been something to do with his neighbour’s muscular build and intimidating demeanour.

“Man, no one m
akes it to New Fortune, pip squeak, hell by the look of it you’ll be lucky to survive the landing. See first you gotta make it to The Dustbowl without getting swallowed up by the storms. If the kindly residents of The Dustbowl don’t decide to use you for target practice then you gotta get yourself a ride and make your way across the desert to New Fortune. But listen there are some real freaks over there man, people do nasty shit when there ain’t no law or order, and making it across the desert ain’t as easy as it sounds. The only thing worse than the people is the - how should I say -
exotic
wild life. You can forget about New Fortune right now.”

“How do you know so much about how things work on Gyaros?” Miles enquired excitedly, if he could gain as much information as possible from this man he might stand a chance at making it to New Fortune, and with luck making it back to Carthage.

“Well, let’s just say that in certain circles of the Yellow District’s underworld, there are ways to obtain specialised information,” said the black man, quietly and slowly, looking over to the other two passengers briefly. “Y’see, the Areopagus don’t like regular folks to know this, but they got satellites and spies keeping an eye on the big players over on Gyaros. Certain helpful elements of The Enforcers can be
persuaded
to intercept said information from the Areopagus secured data network, for the right price that is.” Sitting up and taking a deep breath, he continued, his tone shifting to one of melancholy, “I ran with some pretty nasty crews, we did whatever we could to keep our days from hitting zero. Approved Acquisition Contracts mostly, that’s a fancy way of saying being paid to steal, bounty hunting, and even some elimination work, hell, that’s why I’m here. Yeah it’s a messy business down in the Yellow Districts when you ain’t got the opportunity to advance up the corporate food chain.” A depressing silence fell for a moment before being broken by Miles.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Hell why not, you’re just a piece of office meat, not gonna make it past the first day. The way I see it, I could tell you my deepest darkest secrets without any kinda consequence. I’m bored and you just happen to be sitting beside me.”

“I-I’ll have you know that I am
in fact a violent criminal, and I fully intend to reach New Fortune! The reason I’m on this shuttle is…” Miles swallowed, and in an attempt to raise his credibility with his new friend said, “…murder! I killed a man in the Green Districts, that’s why I’m here.”

The black man turned to look at Miles with an expression of jaded incredulity.

“Whatever you say man, whatever you say.”

“Hey so um, I understand that you don’t place much stock in my ability to survive Gyaros, but you know I, well that is to say
we,
would stand a much better chance if we were to stick together once we land. I’ve got administrative skills, I’m good with money, and I worked in The Energy Department. Every Energy Department worker must be a trained electrician. I-I can fix things you know?”

The black man furrowed his brow and took a moment to think it over.

“Heh, why not, who knows, you might come in handy after all. But there’s one condition,” he leaned down and spoke quietly only inches from Miles face, “if shit gets dirty down there you stay the hell outta my way. I don’t believe for one second that you’ve killed a man, so you’d better leave all the rough stuff to me”

Miles gulped again, his ruse didn’t fool this hardened criminal one bit.

“W-well then, it’s settled. My name is Miles Stanton and I am very much looking forward to working closely with you when we reach Gyaros, Mister…umm,” Miles said, his voice shaking. He reached out his open hand as far as it would stretch around the chunky rubber bars holding him in place.